Systems and methods for detecting seismo-electromagnetic conversion
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsNiels Grobbe, Aime Fournier, Laurent Demanet
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Abstract
Drilling systems and related methods are disclosed. A drilling systems may include a tool configured to be positioned at an end of a drill string adjacent a drill bit, and the tool may be configured to detect localized seismo-electromagnetic conversion from one or more predetermined positions within a medium ahead of the drill bit. The tool may include two or more pressure sources configured to generate focused acoustic and/or elastic energy at the one or more predetermined positions to generate the localized seismo-electric conversion.
Claims32
A drilling system comprising:
- a tool configured to be positioned at an end portion of a drill string;
- one or more pressure sources positioned within the tool;
- a controller operatively coupled to the one or more pressure sources, the controller configured to control the one or more pressure sources to emit acoustic and/or elastic energy into a medium surrounding the tool such that the acoustic and/or elastic energy is focused at one or more predetermined positions within the medium;
- and
- a sensor positioned within the tool, wherein the sensor is configured to detect an electromagnetic or electrostatic signal generated by seismo-electromagnetic or seismo-electric conversion at the one or more predetermined positions.
A method comprising:
- determining propagation of acoustic and/or elastic waveforms from one or more predetermined positions in a medium based on a predetermined acoustic and/or elastic model of the medium;
- obtaining modeled signals at locations of one or more pressure sources based on the determined propagation of acoustic and/or elastic waveforms, wherein the one or more pressure sources are positioned within a tool;
- time-reversing the modeled signals to calculate a time-reversed signal for each location of the one or more pressure sources;
- and
- emitting the time-reversed signal from each of the one or more pressure sources to generate focused acoustic and/or elastic energy at each of the one or more predetermined positions.
A method comprising:
- emitting acoustic and/or elastic energy into a medium from at least one of two or more pressure sources positioned within a tool attached to an end portion of a drill string to generate reflected acoustic and/or elastic signals from the medium;
- measuring the reflected acoustic and/or elastic signals with one or more pressure sensors positioned within the tool;
- obtaining focusing waveforms based on the reflected acoustic and/or elastic signals;
- and
- emitting the focusing waveforms into the medium from at least two of the two or more pressure sources to generate focused acoustic and/or elastic energy at each of one or more predetermined positions within the medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.